Doug Pace
NORTH BAY – The Mississippi River has a magic about it that has made it the subject of novels, songs, movies and plays, and Doug Pace has fallen under its spell.
The 51-year-old North Bay resident is setting off in May on a solo kayak trek down the Muddy Water that he anticipates will take him a minimum of two-and-a-half months, “maybe longer,” he said.
“The whole trip is 2,300 miles, and I’d like to think I could do an average of 35 miles a day. My plan is to start at dawn each day and travel for 10 to 12 hours if I can.”
Pace intends to live out of his kayak during the adventure, stowing his camping gear and limited food supplies in the two small cargo holds, researching ahead of time the location of the grocery stores close to the shore. Along the way, he will encounter challenges of weather, tide, channel currents and other watercraft, not the least of which are the three-storey high cargo barges that call the river their freeway.
None of this seems to phase Pace, despite the fact that he is hearing impaired and legally blind. “I have about five degrees of vision now, and they tell me it will likely get worse,” he said. “This is a trip I’ve been thinking about for five years, and I want to do it now before I might be totally blind.”
He had considered other adventures, like the Alaska Trail, but the lure and romance of Tom Sawyer’s Big River won out.
“The Mississippi is one of the top 10 longest rivers in the world,” he said. “I love to travel, and this will give me an entirely different perspective. I’ll get to experience life on the river among the barges and beside push boats that are the size of a football field,” he said.
An avid outdoorsman, Pace was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa in 2000, and since then has earned a blue belt in Shotkan Karate, hiked the Grand Canyon, and became an experienced sea kayaker.
“I’m up to using carbon fiber white canes now,” he jokes. “The aluminum ones just don’t last.”
Pace is expecting to meet up with other boating enthusiasts along the way “who may want to travel with me for a day, but other than that, this is strictly a one-man show,” he said. “I will have a radio with me though, so I’ll know if a hurricane is coming. They get some wicked storms down there, but I really don’t foresee any danger.”
He admits to being a bit of a loner, “but I am looking forward to meeting new people and I’m sure word of mouth will bring some out to see the blind kayaker when I go through the various locks,” said Pace.
Because of his reduced field of vision, Pace says he will be constantly scanning the river for any potential problems. “That’s just become part of how I function and move,” he said. “I’ve also developed a heightened sense of awareness. I don’t want to get hurt, after all, and when you think about it, who’s going to be more careful than I am.”
Although he is taking GPS equipment with him, “I’m going to be using it primarily for gauging speed and distance since the Mississippi River is not on the system.”
Pace starts his adventure at Lake Itasca, Minn., the source of the Mississippi River, and when he has reached the Gulf of Mexico, he will have made history as the first legally blind man to have kayaked the Mighty Mississippi.
He says he hopes to inspire others in similar situations, “to find their own strength and to realize that those who believe in themselves can make anything possible.”
While he says he has no intention of turning his adventure into a Mark Twain novel, Pace will be recording his journey with his camera and has already started documenting his preparations on his Facebook page, blindkayaker.
Friends and family are supporting Pace as he readies himself to make this historic trip.
“This is one of those once-in-a-lifetime adventures and it will showcase the abilities of the blind,” said Pace. “I also want to inspire anyone who is sedentary or dealing with a handicap to become more active in general.
“I’m really excited about this, and I can’t wait to see what life on the Mississippi is like. This is so much better than taking the bus.”
